Belt adaptor for mounting accessories

ABSTRACT

A belt adaptor for mounting accessories to a tactical belt with an elongated body having an upper surface, a lower surface, a first side wall and a second side wall defining a belt-receiving area, said area having a height approximately the width of the belt on which it is worn and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt. The lower surface of the body is lined with both hook and loop material. In a second embodiment, the belt has an elongated body having a top wall, a bottom wall, a first side wall and a second side wall defining a belt-receiving slot therethrough, said slot having a height approximately the width of the belt on which it is worn and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt. The interior portion of the bottom wall is lined with both hook and loop material.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/185,758 filed Jun, 29, 2015. The entire contents of the above application are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.

FIELD

The present invention relates generally to mounting of weapons and accessories. More specifically, the present invention relates to mounting accessories for use with a tactical belt system.

BACKGROUND

A tactical belt (sometimes referred to as a gun belt, “duty rig” and/or kit belt) is a belt, typically constructed of nylon or leather used to carry weapons and/or weapon accessories easily, in a readily-accessible manner, while leaving the hands free to interact. Hook-and-loop fasteners, hook-and-pile fasteners, or touch fasteners (known as Velcro®) are often used on a tactical belt to mount accessories and they consist of two components: typically, two lineal fabric strips (or, alternatively, round “dots” or squares) that are attached (e.g., sewn, adhered, etc.) to the opposing surfaces to be fastened. The first component features tiny hooks; the second features even smaller and “hairier” loops. When the two components are pressed together, the hooks catch in the loops and the two pieces fasten or bind temporarily during the time that they are pressed together. When separated, by pulling or peeling the two surfaces apart, the strips make a distinctive “ripping” sound.

Sometimes these tactical belt systems are comprised of two belts, sometimes they are just one belt. Some have hook material facing inward and some have loop material facing inward. Some have the hook/loop material lining the inside of the belt and some have the hook/loop material lining the outside of the belt. Using belt loop mounting adaptor (belt adaptor) for mounting accessories such as a magazine carrier with a mating hook/loop lining on a surface of the belt adaptor helps keep gear in place on the belt. Most mounting accessories are lined with either hook or loop, thereby limiting their use to tactical belts with the mating hook/loop lining or a dual belt that has the hook and loop lining. It would therefore be useful to use a belt adaptor for a mounting accessory that has both a hook and loop lined surface on a single belt to allow the accessories to be mounted to any commercially available single tactical belt system.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention seeks to meet this need by providing a belt adaptor for mounting accessories to a tactical belt. In a first embodiment, the present invention is a belt adaptor for hanging items from a belt, wherein the belt adaptor has an elongated body having an upper surface, a lower surface, a first side wall and a second side wall defining a belt-receiving area, said area having a height approximately the width of the belt on which it is worn and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt. The body has at least one mounting plate extending laterally from at least one side wall. The lower surface of the body is lined with both hook and loop material.

In a second embodiment, the present invention is a belt adaptor for hanging items from a belt, wherein the belt adaptor has an elongated body having a top wall, a bottom wall, a first side wall and a second side wall defining a belt-receiving slot therethrough, said slot having a height approximately the width of the belt on which it is worn and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt. The interior portion of the top or bottom wall of the belt-receiving slot is lined with both hook and loop material. The body has at least one mounting plate extending laterally from the elongated body.

These configurations enable the accessory to attach to belts with either hook or loop surfaces equally. As such the user is not limited to using only dual belt systems with these components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the interior side of one embodiment of a belt adaptor designed to mount on the back of a magazine carrier.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view the exterior side of the belt adaptor of FIG. 1 designed to mount on the back of a magazine carrier.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the belt adaptor of FIG. 1 mounted to the back of the magazine carrier with no belt fed through.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a belt adaptor of FIG. 1 mounted to the back of a magazine carrier with a loop lined belt fed through the belt adaptor.

FIG. 5 is a perspective top view of a second embodiment of a belt adaptor.

FIG. 6 is a perspective side view of the belt adaptor of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 a perspective side view of the belt adaptor of FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a perspective side view of belt adaptor of FIG. 5 with a loop lined belt fed through the belt adaptor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Throughout the specification and claims, the term “tactical gear” encompasses equipment that may be carried by civilians, outdoorsmen, military, SWAT (special weapons and tactics) teams, anti-terrorist squads, bomb-defusing teams, intelligence and counter-intelligence personnel, and the like, such equipment including, but not limited to, ammunition, magazines carriers, knives, rappelling equipment (e.g., harnesses, retention lanyards, grappling hooks, ropes, etc.), climber or mountaineering equipment (e.g., carabiners, pitons, descendeurs, picks, axes, hammers, chocks, etriers, fiffi hooks, griff-fiffi hooks, etc.), GPS equipment, flashlights, compasses, multi-tools (e.g., Swiss army knife, LEATHERMAN brand multi-tools), and personal communication devices (e.g., cellular phones, walkie-talkies, pagers, radios and others).

Turning to FIG. 1, the belt adaptor allows tactical gear accessories to be mounted to a hook and/or loop lined nylon belt. As shown in FIG. 1, the belt adaptor has an elongated body with an upper surface 101, a lower surface 102, a first side wall 106 and a second side wall 107 that are preferably formed integrally as a unitary piece and defining a belt-receiving area, said area having a height approximately the width of the belt on which it is worn and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt. The body has at least one mounting plate 103 extending laterally from at least one side wall 106 or 107 (shown in FIG. 2). The upper surface 101 of the body is lined with both hook 104 and loop 105 material. In a preferred embodiment, the hoop and loop materials are present in about a 1:1 ratio. In this case, the tactical gear is a magazine carrier. The opposite side of the magazine carrier mounting accessory is shown in FIG. 2. In a preferred embodiment as shown in FIGS. 1-4, the upper and lower surfaces have a substantially rectangular aperture therethrough wherein the belt is visible. It is contemplated that the belt adaptor is constructed from a relatively rigid material such as metal or hard plastics; however, the adaptor may be constructed from a variety of materials, including but not limited to thermoplastics, rubber, and polymeric materials.

Turning to FIG. 3-4, an ammunition magazine is shown within the magazine carrier mounting accessory with (FIG. 4) and without (FIG. 3) a belt that is lined with hook material. The loop material on the belt 203 connects to the hook material on the belt adaptor, ensuring a strong grip. If the belt were lined with hook material then it would connect to the loop on the belt adaptor, once again ensuring a strong grip. The body is mounted to the magazine carrier mounting accessory 201 using mounting plates 103 and mounting devices 204, which in this instance the mounting device is a screw but other mounting devices could be used to secure mounting plate 103 to the magazine carrier accessory 201 that hold the ammunition magazine 202.

Turning to FIGS. 5-8, an elongated body having a top wall 301, a bottom wall 302, a first side wall 303 and a second side wall 304 that are preferably formed integrally as a unitary piece and defining a belt-receiving slot therethrough, said slot having a height approximately the width of the belt on which it is worn and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt. The interior portion of the bottom wall 302 of the belt-receiving slot 310 is lined with both hook 308 and loop 309 material. The interior portion of the top wall 301 of the belt receiving slot 310 may also be lined with both hook material 308 and loop material 309. In a preferred embodiment, the hoop and loop materials are present in about a 1:1 ratio. The body has at least one mounting plate 305 extending laterally from the elongated body. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the body is mounted to an accessory using mounting plate 305 and mounting devices 306 and 307, which in this instance the mounting devices are screws but other mounting devices could be used to secure mounting plate 305 to the magazine carrier accessory 201 that hold the ammunition magazine 202. It is contemplated that the belt adaptor is constructed from a relatively rigid material such as metal or hard plastics; however, the adaptor may be constructed from a variety of materials, including but not limited to thermoplastics, rubber, and polymeric materials.

For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference has been made to the preferred embodiments illustrated in the drawings, and specific language has been used to describe these embodiments. However, this specific language intends no limitation of the scope of the invention, and the invention should be construed to encompass all embodiments that would normally occur to one of ordinary skill in the art. The particular implementations shown and described herein are illustrative examples of the invention and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the invention in any way. For the sake of brevity, conventional aspects of the system (and components of the individual operating components of the system) may not be described in detail. Furthermore, the connecting lines, or connectors shown in the various figures presented are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical or logical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships, physical connections or logical connections may be present in a practical device. Moreover, no item or component is essential to the practice of the invention unless the element is specifically described as “essential” or “critical”. Numerous modifications and adaptations will be readily apparent to those skilled in this art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A belt adaptor comprising: a. an elongated body having an upper surface, a lower surface, a first side wall, and a second side wall integrally formed as a unitary piece and defining a belt-receiving area; b. at least one mounting plate extending laterally from at least one side wall with a plurality of mounting apertures extending through the mounting plate; c. hook fastening material; and d. loop fastening material wherein both the hook and loop fastening materials line a portion of the upper surface of the elongated body.
 2. The belt adaptor of claim 1 wherein the mounting plate is integrally formed with the elongated body as a unitary piece.
 3. The belt adaptor of claim 1 further comprising a belt wherein the belt-receiving area has a height approximately the width of the belt and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt.
 4. The belt adaptor of claim 3 wherein the belt is lined with hook fastening material.
 5. The belt adaptor of claim 3 wherein the belt is lined with loop fastening material.
 6. The belt adaptor of claim 1 wherein the hook fastening material and loop fastening material line the upper surface of the elongated body in about a 1:1 ratio.
 7. The belt adaptor of claim 1 wherein the upper and lower surfaces have a substantially rectangular aperture therethrough.
 8. The belt adaptor of claim 1 further comprising a first tactical gear item and at least one mounting device wherein the mounting plate is mounted to the first tactical gear item using the mounting device secured through the mounting plate apertures.
 9. The belt adaptor of claim 8 wherein the tactical gear item is a magazine carrier.
 10. The belt adaptor of claim 8 wherein the mounting devices are screws.
 11. A belt adaptor comprising; a. an elongated body having a top wall, a bottom wall, a first side wall and a second side wall integrally formed as a unitary piece and defining a belt-receiving slot therethrough and wherein the bottom wall is slightly longer than the top wall; b. a mounting plate extending laterally from the second side wall of the elongated body and parallel and adjacent to the top wall of the elongated body wherein the mounting plate is about the length of the difference between the top wall length and bottom wall length of the elongated body; c. hook fastening material; and d. loop fastening material wherein the hook and loop fastening materials line an interior portion of the top or bottom wall of the belt receiving slot.
 12. The belt adaptor of claim 11 wherein the mounting plate is integrally formed with the elongated body as a unitary piece.
 13. The belt adaptor of claim 13 further comprising a belt wherein the belt-receiving slot has a height approximately the width of the belt and a width slightly greater than the thickness of the belt.
 14. The belt adaptor of claim 12 wherein the belt is lined with hook fastening material.
 15. The belt adaptor of claim 12 wherein the belt is lined with loop fastening material.
 16. The belt adaptor of claim 11 wherein the hook fastening material and loop fastening material line the interior portion of the top or bottom wall of the elongated body in about a 1:1 ratio.
 17. The belt adaptor of claim 11 wherein the mounting plate has a plurality of mounting apertures extending through the mounting plate.
 18. The belt adaptor of claim 17 further comprising a first tactical gear item and at least one mounting device wherein the mounting plate is mounted to the first tactical gear item using the mounting device secured through the mounting apertures.
 19. The belt adaptor of claim 18 wherein the tactical gear item is a magazine carrier.
 20. The belt adaptor of claim 18 wherein the mounting devices are screws. 